What Makes Beethoven Great?

What Makes Beethoven Great?
The MSM Chamber Symphonia conducted by Rob Kapilow at Merkin COncert Hall on Nov. 7, 2016. Anna Yatskevich
Catherine Yang
Updated:

NEW YORK—Beethoven, according to musicologist Rob Kapilow, is not about being so much as it is about becoming.

We often think of the composer as revolutionary and barrier-breaking—utterly original—but in fact, there was a very natural progression to his work, his ideas were simple, and his originality was quite rooted in tradition, Kapilow says.